As companies search for ways to enter the world of AI technology, Snapchat took advantage of the hype by featuring OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology. The company released their new AI chatbot in February 2023 for Snapchat+ users, deciding later to open up this feature to all users and resulting in a spike in one star reviews for the app.

The “experimental chatbot” was added to the top of Snapchat feeds and is not optional for the app’s users. To acknowledge this new update, Snapchat released articles answering community questions about the AI and explaining its features, which include giving music recommendations, planning trips, or providing helpful suggestions for daily activities. 

Snapchat’s article continues to detail how the chatbot is experimental and still evolving, warning about the possibility of the chatbot giving harmful or misleading responses. 

The potential for bugs has proven to be a reality as screenshots of people tricking MyAI into saying out-of-guideline comments have blown up on social media platforms. A TikTok video of a creator explaining the “creepy” way the MyAI lied about what it had access to gained over four million views, causing many to question the benefits of this program. The chatbot often withholds information, likely due to its humane programming. Although this makes it seem more similar to talking with a friend, the misleading information can empower the anxiety already surrounding new technology. 

The easy solution to the fears would be to ignore the new feature as much as possible, but Snapchat made that rather difficult. The company claims that if users do not like the new bot, they simply don’t have to use it, which is rather hard to do when the bot’s installment is not optional. Adding onto public discontent is the fact that the AI can simply appear in your chat, which has caused users to feel even more stripped of their privacy. 

In response to the complaints, Snapchat announced a feature that will make it possible to remove the MyAI from your feed, but it is only available for paying users of Snapchat+. It is hard to say if they plan to eventually grant this to all users, as they did with MyAI, or just continue to profit off the controversial feature.

Although MyAI contains helpful features, Snapchat should have waited to introduce the best version of bot before releasing it to its users. The update could have been very helpful if they had given more time for the general public to understand new AI technology and to work out kinks in the programming.